Bargello Embroidery

Bargello Embroidery seems to be enjoying a bit of a revival lately on both sides of the Atlantic. I've seen lots of it through the various North American needlework guilds and also on Facebook among Italian stitchers. The designs, patterns, colours and use of imagination are wonderful and a delight to look at.

This technique goes by many names: Flame stitch, Hungarian point, Bargello, Florentine stitch, Gobelin stitch, Irish stitch and many others. There is a fascinating English language article on possible origins, different styles and extant examples that you can download and read here.

For the Italian take on it, a Google search for "punto fiamma" produces some spectacular examples. It is a technique used often for upholstery on things such as chairs and cushions, if you pay attention in the Italian museums, there are sometimes chairs set around the perimeter of the rooms which are cordoned off so you can't sit on them. These are easily passed by and ignored but close inspection can reveal some wonderful Bargello embroideries which have faded and deteriorated over time but which are still great examples of very complex Bargello embroidery patterns.

If you are looking to stitch a little taste of many Bargello designs, have a look at this wonderful sampler by Maria Elide Melani of the association Ago, Aga e Fantasia of Pistoia, Italy.

Each section is a different Bargello pattern separated by drawn thread channels. I like this idea as then you don't have to worry about trying to work out how to have your various patterns butt up neatly against others, and the drawn thread work creates some definition to the sampler itself.

The pattern booklet (text in Italian) is available from Maria Elide herself, send her an email or contact her via her Facebook page. Please note that the drawn thread work and hemming is not explained in the booklet.

There are 21 different Bargello patterns to stitch with lovely close up photos of the finished embroideries to copy from. You could then easily adapt any one of the patterns for a towel border or for placemats or whatever your heart desires!

Embroidery Museum in Pistoia

I always start out thinking that my next trip to Italy will be all long, relaxing days doing research or studying museum collections. I don't know why I think this as the trips always fly by and are full of frenzied trips to see as many people as possible. I always end up not being able to do all the things I wanted to and offending people that I am unable to visit. When I get back home I try to make sense of all the hurried snatches of things I've seen and done and resolve that the next trip will not be so jam-packed. I do however get things done and this trip I got to go to three museums that I've wanted to visit for a long time. One was the Museo di Tessuto in Prato, another was the Museo della Tappezzeria in Bologna and the one I'm going to tell you about today was the Museo del Ricamo in Pistoia.

An easy train ride from Florence, you can arrive in Pistoia in about 45 minutes, I'm not sure if you can take a bus in less time, I took the regional train which makes a few stops along the way but Pistoia is only 40 km from Florence. I was lucky to have Maria Elide Melani from the embroidery school Ago Aga e Fantasia waiting to pick me up from the station in her car. I'm sure there is a bus that can take you into the centre of town from the rail station. We did not head directly to the museum from the station as it was too early so I can't tell you how long it takes to get there but Pistoia is a relatively small town.

As the Embroidery Museum is run by volunteers, it's wise to double-check that they are open before making the trip. We arrived expecting there to be a lady that Maria Elide knew but instead her husband was taking her shift as she had had to attend to other business. The museum has a large collection of pieces and consequently they are always rotating the items on display. Maria Elide has been there many times but the day we went, she said there were pieces displayed that she had never seen before. This makes repeat visits interesting.

The first thing I noticed was that the placards were in English and Italian and that the English was good! Whoever is doing translations for the museum has done an excellent job.

Image copyright Museo del Ricamo

While the Embroidery Museum is indeed small (there are only two exhibition rooms), there is a valuable collection housed here and you could spend many days studying the excellently displayed and well-lit pieces. In the second room are two large storage cabinets filled with drawers full of embroidered things. Lots of Punto Antico, Casalguidi and even some Lamporecchio embroideries along with many other Italian and classic needlework techniques are to be found here along with gold and silk embroideries too. The elderly custodian showed us an amazing bedspread embroidered by his mother when she was young.

An exciting thing to find out was that the museum offers a research centre, documentation, didactic and historic study. I will definitely be going back!

You can watch a quick YouTube video which is narrated in Italian but which has a few photos of the interior of the museum and a few pieces of it's collection. The narrator says:

Passing through Pistoia, when you are in the Piazza del Duomo, don't miss visiting the museum, you will be amazed. Even in a few minutes you can see the most important finds. The entrance is free, the personnel are available, cordial and competent.

The Rospigliosi Palazzo is the home of the Embroidery Museum, a cave of wonders constructed with knowledge by patient hands. Exhibited here are hand-made articles embroidered in many techniques from the 17th to the 20th century. There are embroidered trousseaux, clothing, tablecloths, doilies and much more. Sacred vestments and antique ecclesiastical clothing of great quality are on display.

Periodically the museum gives embroidery courses. The embroideresses have produced and continue to produce cushions, purses and antique clothing. A 62 segment quilt was made in 2012. Francesco del Cossa's embroideresses.

In the hope that these few hurried images may have stimulated your interest, we await you certain to not disappoint. 

Deruta Drawn Thread Work - New book!

 

What a lovely surprise in the mail on Friday! A long-awaited book on Deruta Drawn Thread Work by Maria Elide Melani of the Association Ago, Aga e Fantasia.

While the text is in Italian, there are a great many step-by-step photos to take you through the set-up, the stitches and the edgings that you should be able to understand what to do with little trouble. The book is packed full of colour photos of lovely projects and finished works. There are a dozen or so stitches explained and 13 patterns.

This book is the fruit of many years of research and exploration of this almost forgotten technique born in Quarrata in the province of Pistoia in the Tuscan region of Italy.

Maria Elide is a delightful teacher and it is well worth your time to take a side trip from Florence to visit her in Pistoia.

You can purchase directly from the publisher, Nuova S1 via bank transfer or with PayPal from Tombolo Disegni (send an email request to order).

Casalguidi Embroidery

Please read this post for more up-to-date information!

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, there were many embroidery and lace initiatives in all regions of Italy. Each region developed their own local styles and stitches, initiating schools for educating children and women. Evidence of Casalguidi Embroidery dates back to the 12th century and local antique embroideries were studied and used to inspire new motifs and styles. Like Punto Antico Embroidery which came to mean embroidery using a combination of certain types of stitches, Casalguidi Embroidery (Punto Casale) seems to be the name used to encompass typical embroideries from the area in and around Casalguidi, Italy where examples of this particular style were often found. Ancient examples were rediscovered in the Serravalle Pistoiese region between Lucca and Florence (west to east) and Pistoia and Lamporecchio (north to south).

Casalguidi Embroidery was also known as Punto Toscano and Punto Antico and uses many of the characteristic stitches which we have come to associate now with Punto Antico Embroidery like Satin Stitch, Curl Stitch, the Gigliuccio hemstitching and needle lace fillings for voided areas. At a certain point, motifs of detached Buttonhole Stitch like rosettes, three and four-leafed clover, leaves, animals (real and fantastical) and human figures began to characterize Casalguidi Embroidery. Motifs inspired by the Romanesque ornaments on the churches and other architecture of the area were added along with vines and grapes and the Bastone [stick] motif was developed, the most recognizable characteristic of Casalguidi Embroidery.

Much of the idealization of this technique is owed to Guiseppina Morelli (1875-1960) who, with the help of other women in the early 20th century developed and taught Casalguidi Embroidery to the women of the region giving them means to support themselves by making trousseaux items and household linens and furnishings like: bedspreads, curtains, cushions, tablemats, tablecloths, tablerunners and towels but also purses and small bags, holders for glasses, napkins, handkerchiefs and lingerie as well as covers for boxes and chests and even bomboniere.

The technique achieved national recognition as "one of the most beautiful in Italy" with its inclusion in the Manuale del Cucito e del Ricamo by Cucirini, Cantoni, Coats and a stand-alone manual written by Adele Della Porta in 1915. Casalguidi Embroidery was also much appreciated at the 1904 World's Fair in Milan and the Annual Exposition/Sale of Women's Work in Turin in 1914.

In the 1920s Casalguidi Embroidery was exported by Maria Maddelena de' Rossi to the U.S.

Though the school/laboratories experienced decline after the Second World War and the death of Giuseppina Morelli, the art of Casalguidi Embroidery never died out altogether.

In May of 1998 the Club del Ricamo Casale was founded and today exhibits works in national and international shows and teaches the technique. I bought this small piece from them at their booth in Rimini at the Italia Invita Forum in 2007:


If you get to Pistoia you must go to the Embroidery Museum to see pieces of Casalguidi Embroidery.

The book Storia e Arte del Ricamo, Il Punto di Casalguidi by Paolo Peri (2007) has lots of historical notes (text in Italian) and a didactic section in Italian and English on executing some motifs of Casalguidi Embroidery.

The Club del Ricamo di Casale published their own book in 2009 called Ricamo a Casalguidi which has the didactic section from Paolo Peri's book (above) and more in Italian and English. They also created an instructional booklet for Fiorella Collection which can be purchased from Italian Needlecrafts (please note that Elena is on holiday until July 15).

Please read the Casalguidi Embroidery - Follow Up post for important information regarding this post.